


Muddle

by Cryptographic_Delurk



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang is Judging Them Off-Screen, Assassination Plot(s), Colourism, Cynical Tone, Depression, F/F, Imperialism, Katara & Mai & Zuko Kill People, Minor Aang/Katara, Past Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:53:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryptographic_Delurk/pseuds/Cryptographic_Delurk
Summary: Katara has never really gotten along with Mai.Then they both get caught in the explosive aftermath of a mission to rout political undesirables.
Relationships: Katara/Mai (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	Muddle

They had met once before in Ba Sing Sae, at Iroh’s tea shop after the war. Zuko had introduced her – ‘my girlfriend’ – and there was a perfunctory exchange of greetings that had set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. Mai was to be respected, if set apart. Katara didn’t care. It was Aang that was on her mind at the time.

And then they had met again at a banquet in the Fire Nation, at the time of the solstice. They were placed next to each other at the table, being of similar rank as the Fire Lord’s and the Avatar’s consorts. As the daughter of a Fire Nation Governor, and that of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe. Only it didn’t change the fact that Katara had grown up washing Sokka’s dirty underwear in a moving encampment without her parents, while Mai had been waited on hand and foot. Had been waited on hand and foot because it was her family’s job to make sure people like Katara never rose above their lot in life.

She wondered if Mai had ever washed even her own dirty underwear. She asked.

“No, I just took a few dozen pairs with me when I went travelling with Azula across the Earth Kingdom, and threw them out every time they got dirty.”

Mai had such a blank face, such measured control of her features as she looked forward and drank from her wine cup, it took Katara a moment to realise she was being facetious.

“When I’m at home, the servants usually take care of it,” Mai agreed. “Though there are a couple of times I’ve had to myself, for discretion.”

Katara did not ask for clarification, but perhaps the confusion had shown on her face, and Mai had seen it in her peripheral vision.

“When they stink like sex,” Mai said.

“Ew!” Katara grimaced. “Why would you tell me that?”

Mai snorted derisively. “So the Water Tribe is full of prudes? You wouldn’t think so listening to the rumours.”

“What rumours?!” Katara demanded. Although she already knew. They both knew what kinds of things were said about Water Tribe barbarians.

Mai was not gauche enough to actually give them voice at an event like this. Though Katara wished she had been, any excuse for a confrontation.

“You’re awful,” Katara hissed. There were so many other things she wanted to say, but her frustration flooded her senses and left her with nothing articulate. And she didn’t need to say that Mai had never changed sides for the right reasons. That she had never cared about any of what Zuko had cared about, only cared about him. They both knew that.

“Be careful,” Mai tittered. “You’ll start thinking I’m an actual person that way. I’m not. I’m just a thing passed between hands like coin. I was exchanged for favour and prestige between my Father and Azula numerous times.”

“You just say that so you can live with how awful you are.”

“Zuko’s the first thing I ever chose for myself,” Mai said, as if she’d never even heard Katara speak. “Before that I just went to whoever I was handed off to.”

“Well, didn’t that work out well for you,” Katara grumbled. She doubted Mai would still have a title or estate or anything, if she hadn’t come through at the eleventh hour.

“Did it?” Mai made it sound like a genuine question.

Katara let her eyes follow where Mai’s where fixed straight forward. There was a crowd gathered around Zuko and Aang up on the dais. The work of politicians and saviours was never done.

She turned back to Mai, who had her hair done around ornaments of white ivory and red jade. They were shaped like spider lilies, and Mai must have chosen them with her own particular sense of morbidity in mind.

Yes, Mai had done well for herself.

Katara had assumed that Mai would not last past the break-up. But it wasn’t so.

Zuko introduced her simply and without a title. “You know Mai,” he said. And had commenced to brief them on the plan.

Katara had thought it would be different somehow. That they wouldn’t find themselves three years out from a war and assassinating rogue elements to keep their boyfriends and ex-boyfriends in power. But they were, and Mai was still here. Maybe she really did have no other place to go.

.

.

“Why did you even come along?!” Katara snapped. “It’s like you were only sent to encumber me!”

Mai had done far more than encumber her. She had plotted a stealthy course into the lord’s manor for them, and filled several of the guards with needles like pincushions before they could even scream. And neither of them could have predicted the bomb that had alerted the entire fortress to their presence, shielded Lord Xu’s escape, and prevented them from carrying out the assassination they were sent to perform.

Katara was being terribly unfair and knew it. But so what? Her unfairness had been forewarned by a slow and steady loss of patience that had started with Mai’s endless slew of complaints leading up to the mission – it was boring, the weather was gloomy, the company left much to be desired – and had ended with Mai’s sharp yet monotonous goading, that Katara should have left her behind in the wreckage of the explosion.

“Just go. You don’t need me. You’ll have a better chance of getting away without me.” Mai had rolled her eyes and repeated herself. “Just go.”

Katara had looked at her. Mai’s leg had been pinned under crushing stone, her shoulder bruised and probably broken, and she had looked drab and dead in robes that were dark grey, like coal. But her face had been stern and calm.

It was absolute rage that had Katara responding. “What kind of person do you take me for?!” She grabbed Mai by the broken shoulder and pulled against Mai’s whimpering scream, until she was free from the rubble.

Katara pulled Mai against her by the waist, and bore nearly all her weight as they hobbled to the escape boat. It was still there, and in close enough to one piece. Katara flung Mai inside of it, and took her place at the helm. Pulled in her arms to bend the water up and launch them from the shore.

And it was lucky the fortress was built up against the water. Even though there was a volley of arrows and fireballs being flung at them, they could be no match for a Master Waterbender so close to sea. Katara raised the mist on the water, to hide their escape, and pressed the boat forward. And from there it was only hours, propelling the boat forward as quickly as she could, trying to judge the best place to stop following the coast and pull into land, and trying to make sure Mai’s shuddering breaths remained steady and constant.

It was ugly swampland where Katara finally decided they were as far from Lord Xu’s forces as they were likely to get. She needed rest, and to tend to Mai’s injuries more fully.

She ran the boat as much as she could in the muddy ground, hoping it would hold until morning, when they’d have to make some decisions about how to rendezvous with Zuko and the others. What a disaster. At least Zuko himself would have to handle the damage control.

Katara hauled Mai up onto her shoulder the best she could – a difficult prospect given Mai was taller than her. She stumbled over the side of the boat and almost fell, and Mai dropped into the mud with the reeds and cattails.

Katara dropped to her knees beside Mai and rolled her from her side to her back.

“You’re a nuisance,” Katara said. “Nobody needs you.” And she felt better that Mai wasn’t conscious to hear her.

She undid the sash and Mai’s waist, pulled her robes open and tested her shoulder. Katara could not heal the bone, but she could ease and bolster the torn muscles around it. Mai’s breathing was laboured, her lungs filled with debris, and Katara could draw some of it out with the mucus accumulating around it.

She drew her hands over the rest of Mai’s torso. She needed to check and make sure the rest of Mai’s chi pathways weren’t disrupted, and you could almost mistake it for clinical when she pressed a hand under Mai’s right breast. There were three dots at Mai’s right hip, and Katara laid her fingers over them.

They looked more like artistry than burn scars. Mai was pale and gorgeous, with never a hair out of place, and never disrupting those around her with over-emotional outbursts. She was everything everyone said a woman was supposed to be, and had been lavished with wealth and attention and favours, and she still managed to treat herself like something disposable and unwanted. It made Katara furious.

Katara pulled the mucus and stone and dust up Mai’s throat, and winced when the slimy film covered her hand. Katara threw it to the side, and went to repair bloody torn skin at Mai’s calf as Mai coughed herself awake.

When Katara had done all she was likely to do tonight, she looked back to Mai’s face. The woman was blinking owlishly at her.

“How are you feeling?” Katara asked.

“Like that bison of yours stomped on me.” Someone who might never in her life have cracked a smile that wasn’t tinged with smug satisfaction. Mai smiled derisively, like she had been disappointed. “You saved me,” Mai stated. She then reiterated, “You should have left me.”

“You’re the worst,” Katara couldn’t help but say. “You don’t get to decide that for me.”

Mai started to sigh, but it morphed into a cough instead. It must have hurt, with her shoulder the way it was.

“Come closer,” Mai said.

“Why?” Katara asked.

“It’s a secret.” Mai’s voice was so hoarse and quiet, maybe she just didn’t have the energy to keep speaking so loudly. “Come closer.”

Katara couldn’t tell the difference between sympathy and pity, but she leaned down obediently, turning her ear towards Mai’s face.

Mai reached up with the arm attached to her good shoulder, and pulled Katara down. Nails were running themselves through her hair, and a tongue licked up her chin and then was replaced by Mai’s face pressing up against her bottom lip.

Katara pushed her away, the same time Mai let her go.

“What was that?!” Katara demanded, although she thought she might already know. She lifted up her forearm to rub the kiss off her lips, and was glad that it was dark and she was dark and nobody would be able to see her blush.

“I really wanted…” Mai began.

Katara knew what it was like to want. “Yes?” she prompted.

“To kiss the Avatar’s girlfriend,” Mai said. And there was the smug smile again.

Katara groaned in frustration. “You’re the worst,” she repeated. “I can’t figure you out.” Which was something – an admission that there was something to figure out.

“You’re the one that didn’t leave me behind,” Mai protested.

“I don’t give up on anyone,” Katara said. And she didn’t know what that was going to mean. All around them was mud and water and cattails, chirping crickets and croaking frogs, and only a woollen blanket in the boat to stay warm for the night.

“Well thanks in advance for not giving up on me,” Mai drawled.

To Katara’s ears, it managed to sound more vulnerable than sarcastic.

“You’re welcome,” Katara answered solemnly. Even if Mai was being sarcastic, Katara would shame her into gratitude. She crawled to the boat for the blanket and, clinging to it from the front, fell backwards into the mud to lie next to Mai.


End file.
